PRESS RELEASE

Chatham House Pushes
‘Permanent Confrontation’ Against Russia

April 2016

Margaret Thatcher at the door of Chatham House, 1993.

March 29, 2016 (EIRNS)—The Royal "We" are most unhappy with the reality that Russia has asserted itself against the permanent war/permanent chaos policy of the British Empire. The latest expression of this is a new report from Chatham House—officially known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA)—by scribbler Keir Giles, released on March 21. According to the summary posted on the Chatham House website, Giles asserts that since Russia’s interests are incompatible with those of the West, we should look forward to permanent confrontation with Russia.

Giles argues that the

"basic conflict of interest between Russia and the West means that the West must either invest heavily, and for the long term, in deterring Russia, or abandon the front-line states together with the defence of Western values."

He claims that, as during the Cold War, "Western planners and policy-makers must consider and plan not only for the potential threat of military attack by Russia, but also for the actual threat of Moscow’s ongoing subversion, destabilization and ’active measures.’"

This report follows by two weeks, one that Giles wrote on the truce in Syria—made possible only by the Russian intervention, which he didn’t say—, in which he asserted that Russia’s success in Syria,

"in particular the confirmation that Western policy can be changed through military action, will embolden Russia to be firmer in pursuit of its objectives in future."

Giles focuses on "two specific tools" that Russia supposedly employs for expanding its state power, the armed forces, and "the state’s capacity for information warfare." In the military realm,

"Russia has now demonstrated both the capacity of its conventional military capabilities and willingness to use them."

Therefore, he claims,

"this readiness to use military force will only have been heightened by the experience of campaigning in Syria from October 2015 onwards."

He also claims that Russia’s practice of information warfare has also developed rapidly, though still based on Soviet-era practices.

"Russia continues to present itself as being under approaching threat from the West, and is mobilizing to address that threat," he writes.

"In short, Russian military interventions and associated information warfare campaigns in the past two years have not been an anomaly,"

Giles concludes.

"Instead they are examples of Russia implementing its long-standing intent to challenge the West now that it feels strong enough to do so. For Western governments and leaders, an essential first step towards more successful management of the relationship with Moscow would be to recognize that the West’s values and strategic interests and those of Russia are fundamentally incompatible."

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